


A Safe Place to Land

by AnaliseGrey



Series: It's Just a Challenge [3]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Fluff, Gen, Hunk (Voltron) is so Pure, Hunk is a Space Hufflepuff, Original Female Character(s) - Freeform, all baking tastes better when made with love, baking to relieve anxiety
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-23
Updated: 2018-02-23
Packaged: 2019-03-22 20:05:42
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,702
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13771548
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AnaliseGrey/pseuds/AnaliseGrey
Summary: Sefina began moving around the small sunny kitchen, slowly but surely pulling out well-loved bowls, measuring cups, and spoons. “Baking can be a calming thing, like a meditation. Focusing on the process can help distract you from other things that are bothering you, and give you time to calm down.” She pulled out a bag of flour and a few other ingredients from the cupboard. “And at the end there is something delicious you can share, which is also nice.”“Huh.” Hunk went to the corner and got the folded step stool and set it up next to the countertop so he could climb up and see what was happening; it would be a few years yet before he could reach the counter without help.





	A Safe Place to Land

_ Hunk had been an anxious child since he could remember. He knew he sometimes exasperated his mother, who while she loved him with all her heart, was at a loss sometimes to help him when he was upset about seemingly nothing. _

_ His grandmother had taken his small hand in hers one slow Sunday afternoon and pulled him into the kitchen. _

_ “What’re we doing in here?” _

_ “We are going to bake something, my love. I’m going to show you how to make panipopo.” _

_ Hunk  _ loved  _ panipopo, and he loved Sefina’s best of all. _

_ “Ok, but...why?” _

_ Sefina began moving around the small sunny kitchen, slowly but surely pulling out well-loved bowls, measuring cups, and spoons. “Baking can be a calming thing, like a meditation. Focusing on the process can help distract you from other things that are bothering you, and give you time to calm down.” She pulled out a bag of flour and a few other ingredients from the cupboard. “And at the end there is something delicious you can share, which is also nice.” _

_ “Huh.” Hunk went to the corner and got the folded step stool and set it up next to the countertop so he could climb up and see what was happening; it would be a few years yet before he could reach the counter without help. _

_ Through the afternoon, Sefina showed him how to get the yeast started, how to knead the dough so it got stretchy and elastic; to add just enough flour that it wouldn’t stick, but not so much that it got tough. She told him to wait and let it rise before they could work with it again. _

_ “Why do we have to wait? Why can’t we just bake it now?” _

_ Sefina smiled down at Hunk’s impatience. “Do you see how small the dough is right now? Do you think you’d be able to get a full twelve buns from it yet? You’ve seen how big my panipopo are.” _

_ She waited while Hunk thought it over, and after a moment his nose wrinkled, and he gave a dismayed shake of his head. “No.” _

_ “Well then, we must wait for it to grow. But because you’re being so patient while it does that, I will tell you a secret: the reason my panipopo taste so good.” _

_ Hunk’s eyes grew wide. “Really?” _

_ “Yes.” Sefina’s eyes crinkled as she smiled wider, and she bent over a bit further so she was nose to nose with Hunk. “My panipopo are full of love. That is how the buns get so big. They pull in love from all the people here in the house, and it makes them big and tasty.” _

_ Hunk’s eyes got even bigger. _

_ “ _ Really _?” _

_ “Yes, really. So now we must wait a bit for the dough to soak up some of the love, and then we can make the coconut sauce to go over them, ok?” _

_ Hunk nodded excitedly, and grabbed her hand to pull her out of the kitchen again... _

 

Hunk’s eyes blinked open to the now-familiar gentle blue glow in his room in the Castle of Lions. He hadn’t dreamt of his family in awhile now, and he wasn’t sure if that was a good or bad thing. The dull ache of homesickness sat behind his breastbone, not overwhelming him, but squeezing just enough that he didn’t think he’d be getting back to sleep. Looking over at the clock, he sighed. It was only about 4am Castle standard time. Nobody else would be awake- even the early risers wouldn’t be up yet. Hunk took a deep breath and let it out slowly. Well. No reason for the morning to go to waste.

15 minutes later saw Hunk in the kitchen, starting a batch of panipopo for breakfast. They’d found something so close in taste and texture to Earth’s coconut that it was almost eerie. The flour wasn’t quite the same as wheat flour, but Hunk had been getting good results from it so far. The yeast was still pretty new, he hadn’t worked with it a lot yet. Most recipes that needed yeast tended to take longer, and they never quite knew what their schedule would be; Hunk thought that he might be able to get away with it today, though.

Happy with how the yeast had bubbled up after a few minutes, Hunk added the other ingredients and worked them together into a dough, letting the familiar motions of kneading the dough relax him, matching his breathing to the rhythmic movements of his hands. 

Hunk set the dough aside in a greased bowl to rise, lips quirking up as he remembered his grandmother’s explanation of how it worked. He’d known for years now how yeast actually worked, but it always warmed him inside to imagine the dough puffing up with love when he baked. While he waited for it to rise, he cleaned up, wiping the counters down and washing dishes. When the dough had doubled in size, he turned it out onto the counter again, punching it down and rolling it out to the rectangle he preferred. His mom had made hers into little balls, but he’d always argued that the jelly roll style held more of the coconut sauce. He’d never proven it one way or another, but he also thought they just looked nicer with all the little spirals, and it was more fun to eat when you could unroll it a bit at a time. Once he had the trays of formed buns rising again, he set out making the sauce. The color was definitely not what he was used to. The fruit it came from smelled and tasted like coconut, but the meat of the fruit was a vibrant blue-green, almost a teal color, while the liquid inside was a more muted tone of the same. While the buns finished rising, he mixed the liquid with some water and sweetener granules until it tasted close to what he remembered. It was overly sweet, but he knew the buns would absorb some of it, so he wasn’t worried.

By the time he had them in to bake it was almost 7am Castle time, and he sat down at the table in the dining area to poke at some designs on a tablet while he waited for them to finish. 

The smell of baking bread was just hitting him as the first of the other paladins wandered in. This morning it was Lance, which was a bit of a surprise. Hunk would have normally bet on the first one in being either Shiro or Keith. Lance had such a dedication to his routine that you could almost set a watch by him.

“You’re up early, you feeling ok?”

To someone who didn’t know Lance well, he’d have looked put together, but Hunk had known him a long time. There was a slight hunch to his shoulders, his steps were heavier than normal.   
Stifling a yawn behind his hand, Lance dropped down into a seat next to Hunk. Lance put his arms on the table and rested his head on them with a dull ‘thunk’.

“Ugh.”

“Aww.” The timer Hunk had set went off, and he stood up, ruffling Lance’s hair before heading to the kitchen. “Be right back.”

A muffled grunt was Lance’s response, and Hunk smiled. Lance was grumpy when he didn’t get enough sleep, but hopefully having a fresh-baked treat for breakfast would help.

Hunk sighed happily as he pulled the pans of buns from the oven. If he closed his eyes, he could almost imagine he was back home baking with his grandmother.

“Perfect.”

Setting the pans on the countertop, Hunk grabbed a spatula and a plate, and pried one of the buns loose, flipping it over onto the plate so the sauce-covered side was facing up. He spooned a bit more sauce on top, and then headed back out to Lance, who didn’t appear to have moved while Hunk was gone. Hunk set the plate down in front of Lance’s folded arms, and sat down to wait, pretending to work on his tablet.

Hunk was surprised Lance held out so long, but after a moment Lance’s head tilted up and Hunk could hear him sniffing at the plate in front of him. Another few seconds and Lance unfolded one of his arms to reach out and pull the plate closer, though he still didn’t sit up.

Hunk kept absently poking at his tablet, though his attention was on Lance. He hadn’t actually tried one of the buns before bringing it out, which was maybe a mistake. This recipe had a bunch of unknown variables in it, and what if something in the new ingredients didn’t work quite right and it tasted awful? This was a terrible idea, he should have tested it first,  _ why hadn’t he tested them first… _ ? 

A quiet noise from Lance pulled Hunk out of his spiral, and Hunk set his tablet aside, giving up all pretense of work. The soft scratch of the plate being pulled even closer to Lance’s face, followed by chewing noises, and Hunk leaned in, hovering near Lance’s shoulder. Which is why he almost got smacked in the face by Lance’s elbow when Lance suddenly shot upright, his eyes wide, crumbs still stuck around his mouth. Hunk isn't sure how the plate's already empty.

“Uh mah  _ gob _ !”

Hunk quirked an eyebrow. “What?”

Lance chewed more, swallowing with effort. “I said ‘oh my  _ god’ _ . Hunk, you big beautiful space puff!”

Hunk snorted a laugh. “Space puff?”

Lance grinned, looking a lot perkier than he had when he first came in. “Yeah, like a Hufflepuff, but in  _ space _ . Space puff. That’s you buddy. Can I have another?”

As Lance was inhaling his second panipopo, he peppered Hunk with questions about what it was, where’d he learned to make it, what was in it.

“It’s a sweet bun. Supposed to be made with coconut sauce, but well, we’re short on coconuts, so I used those k’nali fruit we got the other day. They’re really close. My grandmother Sefina taught me to make them when I was little.” Hunk paused, smiling and chest warming at the memory.

“And they’re made with love.”

**Author's Note:**

> This fic was born from a combination of the Sara Bareilles song 'A Safe Place to Land' and just an overwhelming mass of generalized Hunk feels. Feel free to go listen to that song while reading this. Lord knows I had it on loop while writing this. I'm not sure about how I ended it, but well, here we are.
> 
> Also the idea of a tiny Hunk learning to bake from his grandmother was just too adorable for words.
> 
> Come visit me on tumblr! Say hello at kitkatcabbit.


End file.
